The story of a migrant worker robbing a grave
This article is written by Ni Fangliu
Years later, I had to plan for work and a living again.
This "Phoenix Under the Plane Tree" headline tells the story of a migrant worker who becomes a grave robber.
The story does not have much plot, but it can explain the problem - tomb robbery is an evil road, not a shortcut to work and earn money, and it is not easy!
This migrant worker's name is Fu Guoxue, and his hometown is in Yongle Town, Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province.
Ruicheng photovoltaic project construction site
Fu Guoxue was born in 1971, did not go to junior high school to work as a farmer at home after completing primary school, and later worked part-time.
A few years ago, the photovoltaic industry in Ruicheng rose, and Fu Guoxue followed a native named Rui Chengzhong to work at the photovoltaic construction site.
Fu Guoxue met Rui Chengzhong in 2016 when he was working in a juice factory in Luochuan County, Shaanxi Province.
Later, both of them left the juice factory, Rui Chengzhong went to Chongqing to learn hot pot ingredients, and Fu Guoxue returned to Ruicheng to work locally. After Rui Chengzhong returned from Chongqing, he introduced Fu Guo to work in a hot pot restaurant.
Although Rui Chengzhong and Fu Guoxue are both part-time workers and the age difference is not large, Rui Chengzhong graduated from junior high school and has a flexible mind. Later, Rui Chengzhong became a small contract foreman and contracted a photovoltaic project in a village in the county, and Fu Guoxue worked with him.
In the past few years, there were almost no projects that did not default on wages, and Rui Chengzhong owed fu Guoxue more than 3,000 yuan.
At the end of January 2018, half a month is the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dog, Fu Guoxue asked Rui Chengzhong for money, and he did not ask for money many times, and Rui Chengzhong has been pushing back that there is no money.
It was about to be the New Year in the twentieth month of the month, and Fu Guoxue simply went directly to Rui Chengzhong's rented residence in the county town after dinner to "ask for a salary."
Rui Chengzhong still "has no money", but he told Fu Guoxue that he had a "good job" in his hand and wanted to introduce it to him.
Chinese New Year's EveChinese New Year's Eve that morning, Fu Guoxue called Rui Chengzhong again to ask for money, and asked what kind of good work it was. Rui Chengzhong did not hide it, saying that he had gone with him to dig a grave.
Digging a grave is not a tomb robbery, not giving money and pulling to do bad things, Fu Guoxue said "not to go."
Modern robbery caves
But when you say this, you don't think so.
On February 16, 2018, the first day of the first lunar month of the Year of the Dog, everyone was at home for the New Year. Fu Guoxue did not expect that in the afternoon, Rui Chengzhong would take the initiative to call him to "visit the New Year" and leave a sentence - "Black out".
Fu Guoxue knew that this was to ask him to go out and rob the tomb after dark.
Rui Chengzhong promised to dig out something and count him out.
Ruicheng is a county under the jurisdiction of Yuncheng, which has a very long history, and there are many ancient ruins and tombs in the territory, such as Yongle Palace and ancient Weicheng ruins, which are as many as 12 national key cultural relics protection units. Some people joke that on the ground of Ruicheng, it is possible to dig out cultural relics at will.
There are many tombs, and there are many tomb robbers.
In the past few years, many Ruicheng people have made their fortunes by robbing tombs, and a deputy director of the county cultural relics bureau was sentenced to prison for accepting bribes to release tomb robbers.
The Yuncheng tomb robber (right) identifies the stolen cultural relics
Fu Guoxue had heard about all these things.
At the beginning of the first month, Fu Guoxue instinctively did not want to go, but think of robbing the tomb to get money quickly, he is already a "Ben Five" person, there are old people, there are small ones, and there is a lack of money, so he casually agreed.
At about 7:30 p.m., Rui Chengzhong drove a broken van to the place where Fu Guoxue rented to pick him up.
According to Rui Chengzhong himself, the broken van was bought by him for 800 yuan from the villagers, and there was no license plate, and it became a means of transportation for tomb robbery.
Rui Chengzhong let Fu Guoxue sit in the co-pilot's position.
After getting into the car, it was found that in addition to Rui Chengzhong, who was driving, there was also a man named Hua Shijun, and there was a pack of tomb probe poles behind the car - this is a kind of tomb exploration tool they call "awl", and in some places it is called "Zazi".
Grave robbery tools seized by the police
Hua Shijun is a native of Huayin, Shaanxi Province, who also came from a part-time job, and when he worked in a pharmaceutical factory in Huayin three or four years ago, he met Rui Chengzhong, who was also working there.
Rui Chengzhong drove the car in the direction of Yongle Town, Fu Guoxue's hometown.
Rui Chengzhong was very skilled, he was familiar with the county chronicle, according to the above records to find ancient tombs.
The county chronicle records that there is an ancient tomb 300 meters southeast of Yue Village, Fu Guoxue's hometown, so Rui Chengzhong let Fu Guoxue sit in the co-pilot, with the purpose of letting him lead the way to "navigate".
Rui Chengzhong is right, the national key cultural relics protection unit "Dongzhuang Ruins" is in this place.
Discovered in 1959, the Dongzhuang site unearthed the earliest neolithic pottery pot ever found to preserve tinder – named "Tinder" (see picture below).
Tinder
It is a felony to steal a tomb at a national key protected site, and Fu Guoxue said that there are several tombs on the lower slope of the village, and it is recommended to dig there.
So several people went to the place that Fu Guoxue said.
In the wheat field pointed out by Fu Guoxue, the Huashi army poked with an awl for more than 1 hour and found 2 graves.
Rui Chengzhong wanted to dig that night, but Hua Shijun was superstitious, saying that it was not good to dig a tomb at the beginning of the first month of the new year, so he did not dig it, and the three of them returned to the county seat.
After that, the second and third days of the first month of the first month lasted for two consecutive nights, and around 8 p.m., the three people drove here to visit the tomb, but they could not find out again.
At about 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the first lunar month, Rui Chengzhong broke the van again and picked up Fu Guoxue to dig the tomb that Chuyi had found.
This time, in addition to Rui Chengzhong and Hua Shijun, two new faces appeared on the car, as well as a large shovel, two shovels and a hanging soil belt - a tool for digging holes.
One cemetery was full of robbery holes
Rui Chengzhong introduced that they were two experts found by Hua Shijun, one named Ying Zeyou and the other named Zhao Ershan, both of whom were from Huayin, Shaanxi, and both were also part-time workers.
Ying Zeyou is the youngest of several people, born in 1990. Don't look at his young age, but he is the master of the Huashi army born in 1987, a veteran of tomb robbery.
The same is true.
After the tomb robbery activities, how to dig, where to dig is Ying Zeyou's decision, and mainly by Ying Zeyou throwing a shovel, under the robbery hole into the tomb to clear the goods.
That night, Zhao Ershan was responsible for digging the soil, and the other four people took turns to hang the soil.
Unexpectedly, it took the effort to dig up the two ancient tombs one after another, and found that they were empty and found nothing.
After backfilling the robbery hole, he returned to RuiCheng.
Why backfill? This is the usual practice of tomb robbers to prevent the incident from being exposed prematurely.
The ancient tombs on the ruins of Qingliang Temple in Ruicheng are densely packed
At about 8 p.m. on the ninth day of the first year, I went to the neighboring village of Fu Guoxue Yongle Town to rob the tomb.
Fu Guoxue and Rui Chengzhong set up sentries together, and the tomb exploration and cave digging were mainly the responsibility of the Three Huayin people.
In the first ten, eleventh and twelfth nights, a large number of ancient tombs were found, and it is estimated that there are hundreds of ancient tombs.
After six or seven days, Ying Zeyou designated to dig the largest one, hoping that there would be some gains, but it turned out to be empty, and there was nothing in the tomb except the bones of dead people.
Although there are many tombs in this place, it is not hierarchical, and it is a burial place for people's graves. In the words of Ying Zeyou, "the tomb has no shape", and the owner of the tomb is a poor ghost.
It is estimated that digging down is also in vain, so it will not continue to dig.
After that, the five people changed places and went to Caozhuang in Dongyuan Township to try their luck.
Ruicheng Qingliang Temple cemetery archaeological excavation site
But the tomb on Caozhuang's side was particularly difficult to explore, the soil layer was too hard, the awl could not be poked, insisted on exploring for seven or eight nights, and finally gave up.
However, the five people did not break up, but transferred to Yingzizhuang Village in Yangcheng Town.
During the third national survey of immovable cultural relics from 2007 to 2011, ancient tombs were discovered in the area of Yingzizhuang and identified as ancient cultural sites.
Sure enough, I saw the goods in Yingzizhuang.
A group of people poked in the farmland city with awl for four or five nights and found out 4 ancient tombs.
Ying Zeyou chose to dig two of the tombs, one in the pepper field and one in the wheat field.
The ancient tomb at the edge of the wheat field ditch is exposed
The official start of digging was on the evening of March 25, 2018, which was the ninth sunday of the first month of February in the lunar calendar.
The ancient tomb of Huazhudi is an early tomb of the Western Han Dynasty, the hole was dug more than 5 meters deep, and there are many hemp coins (copper coins) at the bottom of the tomb.
The copper coins were rusty and glued together, seven or eight stacks, five or six centimeters high each.
Except for a pile of copper coins, there was no other burial item. Ying Zeyou, who cleared the goods below, picked it up again and found cotton gloves. It turned out that the tomb had long been patronized by peers, and it was no wonder that nothing else could be found - the copper coin was left by them, and it was taken away by Ying Zeyou.
Ying Zeyou picked up two small copper pieces in the tomb for a long time, and when he saw that there was no stock, he asked the accomplices above to pull him up from the bottom of the robbery cave.
Buried with copper coins
The tomb in the wheat field was dug up again, and it turned out to be stolen, cleaner than washing - ancient artifacts were not seen, "modern artifacts" were found - mineral water bottles and cigarette cases left by the tomb robbers.
What happened next was something even more surprising to them.
After filling in the hole and walking back, I found that the van parked on the side of the road when it came was missing.
Although the van was broken, after all, the good gangsters could take the place, and the car was gone, so a few people had to walk to the nearby town of Dawang, and then take the bus back to Rui Chengzhong's rented house in the county town.
Who stole the van? Rui Chengzhong had a bad premonition at that time.
Sure enough.
Grave robbery tools on vans (not covered in this article)
That night, although it was Sunday, the Ruicheng County police did not give up the security patrol.
When I arrived at Yingzizhuang Village in Yangcheng Town, I found a van parked on the side of the road without a license plate, opened the glare flashlight and looked inside the car, and saw the tomb robbery tools.
After counting, there were eighteen stainless steel probe rods (awls), a Luoyang shovel, a small shovel, twelve small iron pipes, and four iron probe rods.
The police immediately decided to temporarily detain the van and tow it away.
After checking it out, Rui Chengzhong was the first to be caught by the police, and then the accomplices were arrested one after another.
According to the account, Fu Guoxue and Rui Chengzhong and Hua Shijun are not new partners, but old acquaintances, and since 2016, they have robbed tombs together.
There were as many as 10 tomb robberies.
Yongle Town is named after Yongle Palace
Yongle Palace is famous for its murals
And Rui Chengzhong remembered the tomb robbery, which was also related to Fu Guoxue.
When Rui Chengzhong and Fu Guoxue were working in a juice factory in Luochuan, Shaanxi Province, they heard Fu Guoxue say that he was a native of Yue Village, Yongle Town, Ruicheng City, and he was moved by the fact that there were many ancient tombs in Yue Village, and there were often tomb robbers there.
Fu Guoxue was afraid of things, and when he heard Rui Chengzhong say "rob the tomb together", he did not dare to do it, and Rui Chengzhong said, "We have acquaintances in the public security bureau and promise not to arrest you."
Fu Guoxue believed that it was true, so he followed Rui Chengzhong to gang up to rob the tomb.
Fu Guoxue worked as a buddy in a hot pot restaurant during the day, and at night he went with Rui Chengzhong and them to rob the tomb.
Because the hot pot restaurant opens its doors late every day, and the night tomb robbery does not affect the daytime work, so colleagues have not known that the honest and honest Fu Guoxue around him is a "tomb robber".
But they were unlucky and didn't dig up the treasure.
Ruins of the ancient Wei City of Ruicheng
Around November 2016, a group of people robbed tombs for the first time in Fu Guoxue's hometown, intermittently for a month, and dug three tombs that were empty.
In the Spring Festival of the Year of the Ding Youji in 2017, they did not have a good New Year at home, and they also went out to "work" - because of the tomb robbery during the Spring Festival, everyone was busy with the New Year, and it was not easy to be found.
The biggest harvest was between March and May 2017.
In a wheat field with a family named Yongle in Yongle Village, Yongle Town, an ancient tomb was excavated, 3 small porcelain bottles were dug up, and 3200 yuan were sold - this is the most expensive one.
After that, he went to the apricot tree field of Shang Moujia, a villager in Caixia Village, Yongle Town, to steal the tomb, found an ancient tomb from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, dug out 5 painted jars, and sold them for 2,000 yuan.
Faience pots
In the wheat field of the villagers surnamed Yang in Taoyuan Village, Yongle Town, a tomb was excavated, and 2 painted watermelon jars were dug out, Rui Chengzhong thought it was worthless, simply did not want it, and threw it away in the tomb.
On another occasion, a bracelet was dug out of the tomb and thrown away due to severe rust.
Although no precious cultural relics were stolen, they were repeatedly defeated and fought, and the number of tomb robberies was many, and finally they were severely punished.
Among them, Fu Guoxue was sentenced to 11 years and 6 months in prison and fined 70,000 yuan.
Rui Chengzhong was the heaviest, and was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 80,000 yuan.
They're all still inside.
But according to their account, there is a mystery that has not yet been solved.
Tang Dynasty bronze mirror excavated from the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai
In the first month of 2018, Rui Chengzhong and they dug out a Tang Dynasty bronze mirror from a Ming and Qing tomb, and Rui Chengzhong sold it for 2500 yuan.
The bronze mirror was later recovered from a person with the surname. After being identified by the Shanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Appraisal Station, it turned out to be a modern imitation of the Tang Dynasty.
What's going on here?
Could it be that someone else planted a "landmine" that was ready to fool the cultural relics dealers, and happened to be dug up by them? There is a possibility.
Modern antique bronze mirror